We are conducting an assessment of the world's forest decline
and protection across three major biomes—tropical, boreal,
and temperate. The protected areas of the world dataset (WCMC
1997), an estimate of original forest cover, current forest
cover, frontier forest (Bryant et al. 1997) and Holdridge
Life Zones (Leemans, 1990) were combined and analyzed in
a Geographic Information System (GIS). Over the last 8,000
years forests in all biomes have severely declined. Temperate
forests have declined the most (65%) followed by tropical
forests (45%) then boreal forests (13%). Temperate forests
are also the most rare forest type. Of the remaining frontier
forests-large undisturbed forest areas-51% are in the tropical
zone, 45% are in the boreal zone, and 4% occur in the temperate
zone. Less than 5% of all remaining temperate forest is currently
protected. Less than 4% of all boreal forest is protected,
and more than 15% of tropical forests are currently protected.

Our research is being carried out to answer the following
questions:

Did deforestation in past centuries differ among major
global biomes-the boreal, temperate, and tropics?

How much forest is remaining in the boreal, temperate
and tropics?

What is the degree of protection in these biomes, relative
to the degree of threat?